A NY State Senate bill to prevent voter fraud enabled by the Green Light Law

On November 11, Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola filed for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, to prevent New York State's Driver's License Access and Privacy Act (2019) from taking effect on December 16.

The new act is commonly referred to as the “Green Light Law”.

The lawsuit claimed that the new law would enable illegal aliens to register to vote in New York. Frank Merola’s attorneys asserted that this effect was by-design, writingThe Green Light Law intentionally opens up the ballot box to non-citizens in New York, and mandates that county clerks like Mr. Merola knowingly participate in that State-sponsored scheme.

In a separate filing, Merola wrote The Green Light Law conscripts the County Clerks as participants in this state-wide scheme to dilute the votes of qualified voters, which upon information and belief infringes upon constitutional rights.

How the Green Light Law would enable voter fraud

The problem is that the Green Light Law allows illegal aliens to obtain 9-digit driver’s licenses, and anyone in New York State with a 9-digit driver’s license number can register to vote. Proof of citizenship is not required to register or to cast a ballot.

Meanwhile, the Green Light Law prohibits county clerks, who in New York are the ones responsible for managing DMV offices, from inquiring about the citizenship of individuals applying for a driver’s license. The county clerks only accept voter registration forms and transmit them to an election commissioner.

The NY State Department of Motor Vehicles recently installed computer tablets at all DMV customer stations to make it easy for customers to register to vote. So, an illegal could walk in, apply for a driver's license and quickly register to vote while there, and no one would be allowed to challenge him!

New York Senate Bill S6909

Republican Christopher L. Jacobs represents the 60th Senate District, which includes part of Buffalo, in the New York State Senate. On December 16, the day that the Green Light Law went into effect, Senator Chris Jacobs issued a press release announcing a new bill to provide protections against voter fraud.

NY Senate Bill S6909 would require every first-time voter to verify citizenship by presenting one of the following: A valid U.S. Passport, New York State-issued REAL ID, NY State Enhanced ID, a Social Security card, a Birth Certificate or a Naturalization Certificate.

Update: On December 18, S6909 was referred to the NY Senate Rules Committee and on January 8 it advanced to the Elections Committee.

Why concern over voter fraud is justified

The proposal cites experiences in other states to justify the new requirements. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla recently acknowledged that some 1,500 individuals, including non-citizens, had been registered as a result of his state's new automatic voter registration law.

According to the Center for Election Innovation and Research, the bill continues, there were 82 possible fraudulent votes cast in Ohio in 2016 and in 2016, and in North Carolina nineteen non-citizens were charged with having voted illegally.

In Pennsylvania, similar concerns are said to have caused a change in state DMV procedures, to require that individuals be asked if they are U.S. citizens. If the answer is "no", the individual is not asked to register to vote, and is not provided with voter registration forms.

On January 20, it was revealed that the automatic voter registration program in Illinois appeared to have added more than 500 non-citizens to the election registries in various counties. This occurred despite the fact that the involved DMV customers had indicated ‘No’ to an attestation regarding citizenship when they submitted their applications.